


Where Our Horizons Meet

by rnadison



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-11 13:25:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3328253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rnadison/pseuds/rnadison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's never seen in colour. Not until Barry came along. </p><p>Previously "Hold On Tight".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by an au prompt i saw on tumblr, where someone sees in black and white unless they're touching their soulmate.

She’s never seen colour.

 She knew what colour was. She knew the sky was blue, the grass was green, a rose was red--- that skin supposedly had colours as well. But to her, everything was shades of black and white; her world was permanently reduced to the ones found in old photographs. The sky was always an overcast grey. Grass, a myriad of a charcoal-y black. And a rose? Forget it. All its scarlet  splendour was wasted on Caitlin’s stubborn eyes, eyes that simply refused to see the world for all its glory.

 But she just assumed it was normal. She never told anyone about it, not even her parents--- she thought that the words red, blue,  and yellow were used to simply differentiate the shades of grey.  

 And, like everything else she encountered, she learned them.

 She learned them so well that about 90% of the time, her colour words were correct. Nothing was amiss. An inconvenient handicap for a girl who wanted to be a scientist, but she didn’t see it as a handicap. It was just the way things were.

 Until Barry came along.

 It was slow, at first. She tried to ignore it, the way the grey was suddenly broken with sudden, soft hues of colour whenever he brushed past her in the lab. The way the buttons on the consoles glowed blue, yellow, red. How Dr. Well’s shirt was a pastel green. How a  snatch of blue sky, proper blue, could be seen out the window.

 And it was beautiful.

 But then he’d be on his way and the colours would shrink before her until there was nothing left, like they were seeping into a sponge that was robbing her of them.

 Ever since that first touch, her eyes were hungry for the colours to return. She couldn’t figure it at first. Had it been where she was standing? The position of the sun that day? It could’ve been the tide cycles, for all she knew. She grew increasingly frustrated as the days wore on; it was an experiment she couldn’t pick apart, a word problem she couldn’t understand.

  _What caused the colours?_

 

* * *

It took her two weeks to figure it out.

 She’d been taking a coffee break at the lab, sitting at her desk with the newspaper in front of her. Another meta-human on the loose. Of course, that wasn’t what the papers were calling it--- it was remarkable, really, how the newspaper could so accurately, yet inaccurately report the news. She’d been so engrossed in her reading that she didn’t notice Barry come in, or hear the wheels of his rolling chair on the tile before he came bumping into her.

The greys suddenly drew down, replaced with colour as quickly as they disappeared, as though her vision were controlled by a dial and someone was turning it all the way up. A deluge of colors flushed before her eyes upon contact, blooming from the center of her vision before spreading to the edges. Her eyes widen at the smooth chrome surface of the desk, the sunlight streaming in through the window. She looked at Barry, who was grinning, saying something about the paper, leaning over to get a better look at the picture--- she looked at the creamy complexion of his skin, the tinge of pink that colored it. Real colour, not the grey substitutes she’d been using all her life. The colours, which before had been faint, bland pastels, were screaming vibrant now, and there was an inexplicable ache under her ribs for more.

He’s still talking about the picture when she finally speaks.

“Do you see it too?”

It’s barely a whisper, as though she’s afraid speaking too loudly might break the spell. He looks back at her quizzically, freezing her with gentle blue eyes that she’s never been able to properly appreciate before. He runs a tongue over pink lips that exactly match the hue that slightly blankets his cheeks.

“What are you talking about?”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of people were asking me to continue this, and after much deliberation, I have decided I agree with them. It won't go on for much longer, though. Probably only one more chapter after this. 
> 
> Agggh I didn't mean to get so emotionally invested in these two dorks...

Her condition wasn’t normal.

No one saw in black and white. No one was supposed to see in black and white. Why was it just her, then? Was it some weird genetic mutation, like in X-Men? If that were true, then she should’ve been able to do something cool with it, like maybe zapping people with vision rays from her eyes or something. And why did everything change when she came into contact with Barry? Why was it just Barry? Why not Cisco, or Iris, or even her cat? So many questions, so little answers.

Maybe it was the whole meta-human thing. Maybe being near him was a side effect, or something. Something that could rid the greys, even just for a little while.

Maybe it was his looks. The stupid way the colours on his face seemed perfectly balanced, which she could see every time he touched her shoulder to get her attention, or when their fingers brushed when passing reports to one another.

Maybe it was the undeniable fact she was completely infatuated with him.

She was bursting with this new revelation, and when she could contain it no longer it came tumbling out of her to Cisco. He’d been appropriately bemused at first, but then Caitlin had made him swear on both their cell phones he wouldn’t tell anyone. “Like I’ve got anyone to tell,” he remarked, his hand still on the little stack. “Who’d believe me anyway?”

* * *

“True love’s kiss.”

Caitlin looked up. “What?”

Cisco pulled his feet off the desk, leaning forward. “Look. You said that your little problem only happens when you come into contact with Barry. Did it do that with… Ronnie?”

Caitlin’s stomach gave a lurch, as it always did whenever Ronnie was brought up. “No…”

Cisco nodded. “So, what if your vision only turns to colour when you come into contact with, I don’t know… your true love?”

Caitlin’s eyebrows pitched up.

“And, and…” Cisco paused, his hands in the air for dramatic effect. “What if your eyes go colour full-time when you _kiss_ aforementioned true love?”

Caitlin scoffed, turning away. “Cisco, come on. This isn’t a Grimm’s fairy tale.”

“Look, you asked me to help you figure this out, and I did. Just… just think about it.”

* * *

Boy, did she think about it. She thought about it all the time. Though Cisco’s hypothesis was absolutely crazy, at the same time it all made sense. It was the answer to all the questions that had eluded her for two and a half months. And it didn’t help that it was basically her job to see Barry every day, to try and ignore the prickle that ascended up her spine whenever he brushed past her, the pastels that taunted her whenever he did.

She couldn’t kiss him.

But she couldn’t keep living like this.

The golden opportunity struck one blustery night a week later. Caitlin had volunteered to stay late to do inventory on the compounds that were safely bubbling away in the back of the facility. She’d been on her way out, head bowed to the cold before she quite literally ran into someone--- and she knew exactly who it was, for now she could see the yellow light of the lamppost illuminate the snow at her feet.

“Caitlin? Why are you still here?”

She looked back at him, keeping a hand on his arm to freeze the colours in place. “Counting compounds,” she replied as nonchalantly as possible.

He nodded. “Fun.”

“Not really.” She paused. “Why are you still here?”

“I, uh, I left my---”

Whatever he left, she’d never find out, because before he could finish she caught his lips with hers. 

It wasn't a long kiss, but it was long enough to know that he was kissing her back, to know that she didn't need to keep a hand on his arm anymore because his hands were cupping her face, holding her to him like the wind might blow her away otherwise. Their breathing has both quickened when they come up for air, their breath both steaming in the cold. 

But Caitlin's knees are shaking, her whole  _body's_ shaking, at what she's just done. 

"Sorry--- I just--- I had to test something---" She's backing away now, and Barry just looks so  _hurt---_ "I've--- I've gotta go---" 

And then she's running, nearly sliding along on the ice, the cold biting at her face; as she runs the moon shines silver, and it's now she realizes what exactly the phrase 'midnight blue' means. 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now she can see in full colour without touching Barry, which means Cisco's crazy hypothesis worked, ahahaha... apologies if that wasn't made clear in the end. 
> 
> I wrote this listening to Ed Sheeran's "All Of The Stars." It's a really wonderful soundtrack for this story, in my opinion c:


End file.
